NGF wrote:I have also considered real time but it feels like it's one upper level of difficulty to code/complexity to the game so I might skip it and make it more like the Elvira games.

Ok, you have the exact solution to the viewpoint as I have with alot of IF's. As long as it works I guess.. But I can't escape the feeling that it should be a easier/shorter way to calculate view

About the graphical assets, why not "borrow" some graphics from Eye of the beholder / DM as a start and then edit them beyond recognition for your own needs?

I wish you good luck with the game!

Believe me, I've considered asset flipping. Unfortunately my viewpoint is way bigger than EOB, DM, Captive, Knightmare, Walls of Illusion, Ishar, etc. Also my perspective is different if you look at it; the "camera" is equidistant from floor and ceiling. Also also, none of the above have murderous antelopes with horns and tusks, soldier ants with chitin spears, or manticores. (I don't want boring monsters such as orcs, goblins, undead, etc.)

And there must be an easier way to calculate it, I'm sure, however, brute forcing seems to work for now.

Don't knock Elvira / Waxworks. They're good games. I'm told that they actually started with a graphical MUD engine and basically bashed it until it fit their purposes. I think you could probably do the same in STOS no problem. Compact each location image together with its mask (a secondary image that might include all variants such as objects taken / not taken, etc.) and a directory of where each mask element goes, a room description, exits and where they go to, and examine descriptions into a single .MBS file, then load it in, BLIT everything into place, wait for player input, and you've probably got something a bit like the Legend Interactive adventure games on PC (Companions of Xanth, Spellcasting series, Death Gate, Shannara, etc.)

I believe one of our number in the Facebook group has also worked out how to do a resolution split as well, so you can have low res to show the image in colour and med res to make the text less chunky at the bottom...

Firstly, I've produced a side program that is used to grab the various frames of animation for each monster and compact them, together with said monster's statblock, into a single file. This is attached.

Secondly, I'm currently working on locked doors. This is a lot harder than it sounds. Basically, door locks will be on the door frames where the button or pull chain is now. Logically, they simply give a message saying "This door is locked" unless the player has in hand the correct key type, in which case the player's hand is emptied and the door opened. Because any lock type can be in any dungeon environment, rather than blit the lock onto the frame which would require me to use valuable screen space that could be used for larger environmental features, I'm storing the lock graphics in the sprite bank and will TRAP them into view when the game detects that a locked door is visible. This may be slightly slower than blitting it but it can be pixel perfect as opposed to being reliant on 16 pixel boundaries.

Thirdly, I've compacted into the actual program file the splash screens, the interface, and the character generation screen, to save on disk space. It's also faster to decompact them than to load them from disk each time, esp. from floppies.

You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.

Currently, the map is in a .CSV file in plaintext. This is so I can tweak it easily using Notepad to test various new features as added. When the editor appears, however, I'll convert it to a big heaping mass of binary data to keep those load times down. Dump it straight into the map array. It's starting to get to the point at which I'm forgetting what each number actually means on the map grid...

Time for a new build to be posted. I've now implemented wall signs and locks and keys. The former are 100% there. The latter about 90%, I just need to make them display on side walls properly. Included is both an executable and the source code. You will need an STE if you are running it on a real machine because I've started moving the drawing routines over to the blitter (though not all of them are there on account of transparencies are playing up.)

You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.

i have just testing the new first floor little bug report:the green push button disapear when pushing ?, but if you not move the mouse pointer on the wall and push,the grid down and the green button reapaer!Some new items (gold lock) are not seen in front view when they are at left or right.

Hmmm, probably a typo somewhere. Also, I am aware of the lock refusing to draw on the side walls; I'll investigate it. There is also a bug where if you unlock a door and change to another level, it things certain locks are already open. I have fixed that by making sure I zero all the lock status variables when changing levels. (Of course, in the final build it will of course save to a temporary file the state of each level as you change.)

I'm also shortly implementing teleports. You'll know these when you see them. And as a side effect of same, the foundations of the timing system, even if it is just to make sure they're animated properly.

Hello again everyone. The map editor tool is now in a fit state to see the light of day. It will have things added to it as and when I implement them, however, starting with WOL 0.56 (the next version in line) the new map format produced by this will be adopted. As will decorative tiles, slippery tiles, and slog zones.

I'd be interested to see what people put together with this, if anything. Feel free to post your creations and so forth.

Incidentally, does the person who created Ice Packer frequent these fora? Because I want to thank him for an excellent piece of kit. Shrank the executable for this mapper from 120K to 51K and still preserved all its functionality. I shall be putting all future versions of WOL through it in future (current builds hit 160K+ for the executable when compiled...)

You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.